In Chicago’s 1900s meat-packing plants, children as young as three were used to clean out sausage-grinding machines. Some fell in; many lost fingers or worse. So did adults. No hairnets were required so heads got pulled into the machines when hair or beards got caught. But managers would not stop the line or slow production. Whatever fell in became part of the sausage. Read more Chicago and labor history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
